14-JUL-1993 14:34
Gallagher
TRANSCRIPT MR ALASTAIR GOODLAD
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0491 579838
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SELECT COMMITTEE 14 JULY 93
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acquire BNO passports. In response to these concerns the Home
Secretary has agreed, exceptionally, to allow BDTC passport
holders to retain these passports in addition to receiving their
BNO passports. The government have laid before the House an order
bringing into operation the phased scheme for issuing BNO
passports.
The second issue raised by the LEGCO panel was that of the Hong
Kong BDTC passport holders who are not of Chinese race, the
so-called ethnic minority. The government have carefully
considered again the case of giving this group of roughly 7,000
strong British citizenship, we have concluded that their position is adequately protected by arrangements already in place and that
there is no case for fresh legislation. Our memorandum, in
paragraph 42, sets out the position in greater detail.
The
Parliamentary Under Secretary at the Home Office, my Hon Friend
the Member for Bexhill and Battle, repeated in the House on 9 July
earlier assurances that we consider it an obligation from any
future government to consider with particular sympathy the case
the for admission to the United Kingdom of any Hong Kong resident
with solely British nationality in the unlikely event of their
coming under severe pressure to leave Hong Kong and having nowhere
else to go.
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